Flitz Tumbling

[CharlieNC]

As you know brass is not easy to get, esp 223. So I purchased 500 once-fired military 5.56 to work up, and when it was time to clean I had a challenge because it was very tarnished and dirty. I have found Flitz Metal Polish to do a great job removing rust and shining metal in general, so I added a few "globs" totaling around 1 inch in length to the walnut hull tumbling media. Initially these formed media-blobs, but soon these dispersed. In short, after 4-hr tumbling the cankered cases were transformed into the brightest shining brass I have seen so far! It also cleaned the inside as far into the case as I could see, and surprisingly polished most of the primer pockets as well (some get impacted with the media and therefore not tumbled). Looks like the brass was hand-polished with Flitz!

[Smokey262]

I have tried the special brass cleaning Flitz in the bottle and that worked well too, but its too pricey for my tastes. I will give the tube stuff a try too now. Thanks

[rjtfroggy]

Try NU-Finish car detailer, a couple of capfuls into the media and 4-5 hours in a vibrating tumbler and your brass will shine. A bottle goes a long way and is relatively inexpensive.

[CharlieNC]

Ran another couple of loads with 100 308 brass, then 250 more 223 brass. They all look like each case was polished with the Flitz, and are cleaner than anything else I have tried. By the way if you are using dryer sheets, probably not enough residue to matter but the primary softening ingredient is silicone which is very flammable!

[stangfish]

By the way if you are using dryer sheets, probably not enough residue to matter but the primary softening ingredient is silicone which is very flammable!

Charlie, Is there a good story behind this?

[CharlieNC]

Charlie, Is there a good story behind this?

Don't have a story, but I had read some guys use dryer sheets in their tumblers to help shine brass and thought I would pass along this bit of trivia. Perhaps a little too much silicone and gun powder don't mix too well.

[DrThunder88]

I thought dryer sheets were supposed to cut down on dust or at least dust sticking to cases. Do they have polishing properties as well?

[BillPa]

Try NU-Finish car detailer, a couple of capfuls into the media and 4-5 hours in a vibrating tumbler and your brass will shine. A bottle goes a long way and is relatively inexpensive.

Try adding a few cap fulls of Wright's brass polish. Run your cleaner until its thoroughly mixed and dry then dump in the bass. The typical dull brass will look better than new in a hour give or take.

This is before and after using treated corn cob media.




Bill

[stangfish]

I have a question about this process. I have been using polishing compound in my media for a while. The results are fantastic as the brass looks and feels better than new. I was looking at fired brass and the carbon surrounding the neck. Very pleased with the improvement that annealing had made. So I started thinking about the whole expansion thing. Durring the firing of a cartridge the case expands to the walls of the chamber. When it does that force helps, or may help distribute the force recoil away from the bolt. If the case is too smooth does it deminish those properties. Since I have started that line of thinking I have seen pictures of many cases prepard by experinced shooters/Reloaders that look like they have been polished with Crokus or Scotch-Brite. Any thoughts on this.

[CharlieNC]

Stang I would think since the neck diameter of the cartridge is less than the chamber diameter, and the expansion is in the radial (outward) direction, that the finish of the case vs chamber would have very little impact. For the bright necks, are you looking at neck-trimmed cases?

[stangfish]

I think I may have not conveyed my question correctly. Everything is fine when I clean prep size polish. The seal around my necks is supurb. Something I found was that when my cases where rougher on the exterior the shoulders often needed to be bumped when sized. When I started polishing to a high shine and smoothness(read low RMS finish) that my brass headspace remained at or near where I sized them. It made me think about how expansion of the case and its interaction with the walls of the chamber effected the fired brass size. Questioning how the brass was allowed to move in the chamber between a very finely polished case exterior and a rougher finished case exterior. To summerize; a polished case had little to no growth in headspace, assuming that means that the whole case is expanding axialy and contracting back to its original longitudal dimentions. Brass with a more coarse finish seem to cause the demensions of the brass to change. As a secondary concept, is this effecting the load displaced to the bolt and lugs as appossed to some of the recoil being absorbed into the Action/Barrel threads.

[CharlieNC]

Now I understand your question, but I don't begin to have a good answer. I do not think it would matter but great discoveries have evolved from keen observation which defied current "logic".